Magic (Bruce Springsteen album)
Encyclopedia
Magic is the 15th studio album
by Bruce Springsteen
, released in 2007 on Columbia Records
. It is his first with the E Street Band
since The Rising
in 2002. This album was #2 on Rolling Stone
s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.
Of the album's tracks, "Long Walk Home
" had been previously heard once, late on the 2006 Sessions Band Tour
; the rest were new. Most of those were written by the end of 2006; Springsteen allowed producer
Brendan O'Brien
(returning for a role he had for The Rising and 2005's Devils & Dust
) to pick the ones that worked the best. Recording began at Southern Tracks Recording Studio in Atlanta over a period of two months beginning March 2007. It was complicated by the band members' schedules, and especially drummer Max Weinberg
's weekday commitments to taping Late Night with Conan O'Brien
. The band did not record as a unit: rather, during the week Springsteen worked on vocal tracks and production; on weekends the core band of Weinberg, bassist Garry Tallent
, and pianist Roy Bittan
flew down to record the basic tracks with Springsteen. Then periodically the other band members were called in as needed to overdub their parts under producer O'Brien's watch. Only saxophonist and longtime foil Clarence Clemons
was given different treatment, with O'Brien handing the studio over to Springsteen for recording of sax parts due to "a whole dynamic [between the two of them] that spans decades."
Upon its announcement, Magic was characterized by Springsteen's manager Jon Landau
as a "high energy rock" album, with a "heavy E Street Band" sound. The initial track, "Radio Nowhere
", was slated as the album's first single, for release to radio on September 4, 2007; however, it leaked to the Internet on August 22, 2007. The release of the CD form of the album on October 2, 2007 was preceded by a September 25, 2007 release on vinyl record, in order to qualify the album for the Grammy Awards of 2008 before the end-of-September cutoff.
The album became available for pre-order on iTunes
on August 28, 2007, with a promotion featuring the release of "Radio Nowhere" as a free downloadable single; the first legs of the accompanying Magic Tour
were announced as well. The entire album began leaking to the Internet on September 6, 2007. The following day, 93.3 The Wolf
's Fast Freddy in Youngstown, Ohio
, got a leaked copy and played the whole album over the air. In the following days tracks became available in more visible places, such as YouTube
. On September 25, with the vinyl release being made, New York radio station Q1043
posted the entire album via Sneak Peek. Magic became available for purchase in Ireland
, Belgium
, and Germany on September 28.
The album was #2 on Rolling Stone
s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007 and "Long Walk Home
" was #8 on the magazine's list of 100 Best Songs of 2007 Magic was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
but failed to win, losing to the Foo Fighters
' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
.
of The New York Times
notes that not even this track is "untouched by melancholy. Its narrator, after all, stands and watches as the girls of the title 'pass me by.'"
Several sources have postulated that the track "Last to Die", with its chorus of "Who'll be the last to die for a mistake / Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break," was inspired by Vietnam Veterans Against the War
representative (and future senator and presidential candidate) John Kerry
's 1971 testimony to the U.S. Senate, in which he asked "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
"Gypsy Biker" concerns the homecoming of a U.S. soldier killed in action in Iraq, and Springsteen has said that "Livin' in the Future" references extraordinary rendition and illegal wiretapping. "Long Walk Home" is a metaphorical account of the narrator's sense that, in the artist's words, those people living at home "he thought he knew, whose ideals he had something in common with, are like strangers." The recurring lyric "It’s gonna be a long walk home" is a response to the violation of "certain things", such as "what we'll do and what we won't", in spite of these codes having been (in the words of the narrator's father) "set in stone" by the characters' "flag flyin' over the courthouse."
, Magic was Springsteen's seventh number-one in the UK, with first week sales of 77,692, making it his fastest-starting release of the 21st century. In the second week, the album's sales dipped to 28,348.
Magic debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200
chart, becoming Springsteen's eighth number one album in the U.S. and selling about 335,000 copies in its first week. After falling to number two for one week, the album rose again to number one, selling about 77,000 copies that week. In its fourth week, the album fell to number 12. The album received a small boost from publicity surrounding the February 2008 Grammy Awards: after 19 weeks on the chart, the album went from number 137 on the Top 200 to number 103, with a sales increase from 5,000 copies to 8,000 copies for the week.
The sales Magic gained in the United States were achieved despite its receiving very little radio airplay. Fox News reported that media conglomerate Clear Channel
had instructed its classic rock
format stations not to play any tracks from Magic, even though they continued to play Springsteen songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Clear Channel responded by saying that "in the first days after the CD's release," its stations played the record more than other stations did.
In contrast, by late November 2007 in the UK, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" and "Long Walk Home" had been frequently played on adult contemporary stations, despite not being released as singles.
By January 2009, Magic had sold one million copies in the U.S. and 4,795,660 copies in the world.
Two weeks after the album's initial announcement, which included an 11-song track listing, "Terry's Song" was added. It is a memorial song for Springsteen's long-time assistant Terry Magovern, who died on July 30, 2007. Some pressings of the CD pre-ordered through Sony Music or other channels did not contain the extra track.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, released in 2007 on Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. It is his first with the E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
since The Rising
The Rising (album)
The Rising is the 12th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released in 2002 on Columbia Records. In addition to being Springsteen's first studio album in seven years, it was also his first with the E Street Band in 18 years...
in 2002. This album was #2 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.
History
The album was announced on August 16, 2007, following months of fevered recording speculation, and weeks of equally fevered release speculation, among the Springsteen faithful.Of the album's tracks, "Long Walk Home
Long Walk Home
"Long Walk Home" is a 2006 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. It first appeared on his Sessions Band Tour of that year, in folk guise in the European leg of the tour in London for one performance only. Reworked with different and shorter lyrics, it was recorded by Springsteen and the...
" had been previously heard once, late on the 2006 Sessions Band Tour
Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour
The Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour, afterward sometimes referred to simply as the Sessions Band Tour, was a 2006 concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and The Sessions Band playing what was billed as "An all-new evening of gospel, folk, and blues," otherwise seen as a form...
; the rest were new. Most of those were written by the end of 2006; Springsteen allowed producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Brendan O'Brien
Brendan O'Brien (music producer)
Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
(returning for a role he had for The Rising and 2005's Devils & Dust
Devils & Dust
Devils & Dust is the 13th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, and his third folk album . It was released on April 25, 2005 in Europe and on April 26 in the US...
) to pick the ones that worked the best. Recording began at Southern Tracks Recording Studio in Atlanta over a period of two months beginning March 2007. It was complicated by the band members' schedules, and especially drummer Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
's weekday commitments to taping Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
. The band did not record as a unit: rather, during the week Springsteen worked on vocal tracks and production; on weekends the core band of Weinberg, bassist Garry Tallent
Garry Tallent
Garry Wayne Tallent , sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band....
, and pianist Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
flew down to record the basic tracks with Springsteen. Then periodically the other band members were called in as needed to overdub their parts under producer O'Brien's watch. Only saxophonist and longtime foil Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
was given different treatment, with O'Brien handing the studio over to Springsteen for recording of sax parts due to "a whole dynamic [between the two of them] that spans decades."
Upon its announcement, Magic was characterized by Springsteen's manager Jon Landau
Jon Landau
Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
as a "high energy rock" album, with a "heavy E Street Band" sound. The initial track, "Radio Nowhere
Radio Nowhere
"Radio Nowhere" is the first single released from Bruce Springsteen's 2007 studio album Magic."Radio Nowhere" was awarded Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song at the Grammy Awards of 2008.-History:...
", was slated as the album's first single, for release to radio on September 4, 2007; however, it leaked to the Internet on August 22, 2007. The release of the CD form of the album on October 2, 2007 was preceded by a September 25, 2007 release on vinyl record, in order to qualify the album for the Grammy Awards of 2008 before the end-of-September cutoff.
The album became available for pre-order on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
on August 28, 2007, with a promotion featuring the release of "Radio Nowhere" as a free downloadable single; the first legs of the accompanying Magic Tour
Magic Tour (Bruce Springsteen)
The Magic Tour was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 concert tour of North America and Western Europe.The tour began October 2, 2007, in Hartford, Connecticut, and concluded August 30, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
were announced as well. The entire album began leaking to the Internet on September 6, 2007. The following day, 93.3 The Wolf
WNCD
WNCD is a commercial radio station serving Youngstown, Ohio, owned by Clear Channel and broadcasting a mainstream rock format at 93.3 MHz. Its signal covers Youngstown, Warren, and New Castle, PA, and at times even reaches Erie and New Kensington, Pennsylvania. However, as one approaches Meadville...
's Fast Freddy in Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, got a leaked copy and played the whole album over the air. In the following days tracks became available in more visible places, such as YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. On September 25, with the vinyl release being made, New York radio station Q1043
WAXQ
WAXQ is a radio station with a classic rock format in New York City. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications.-WFDR:...
posted the entire album via Sneak Peek. Magic became available for purchase in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and Germany on September 28.
The album was #2 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007 and "Long Walk Home
Long Walk Home
"Long Walk Home" is a 2006 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. It first appeared on his Sessions Band Tour of that year, in folk guise in the European leg of the tour in London for one performance only. Reworked with different and shorter lyrics, it was recorded by Springsteen and the...
" was #8 on the magazine's list of 100 Best Songs of 2007 Magic was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre...
but failed to win, losing to the Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
The album debuted at the top of the UK album chart, selling 135,685 albums in its first week. The album also went platinum in its first week in both Australia and New Zealand. In the U.S., it entered the Billboard 200 album chart at #3, selling 168,000 copies in its first week, and has since been...
.
Album themes
Several songs in Magic express disillusionment with the state of American society in 2007 in particular; others, such as the title track (with its lyrics of "I got a shiny saw blade / All I need’s a volunteer / I’ll cut you in half / While you’re smilin’ ear to ear”), convey a more general sense of foreboding. "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" has been cited as a singularly "breezy" song on the album, though A. O. ScottA. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
notes that not even this track is "untouched by melancholy. Its narrator, after all, stands and watches as the girls of the title 'pass me by.'"
Several sources have postulated that the track "Last to Die", with its chorus of "Who'll be the last to die for a mistake / Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break," was inspired by Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vietnam Veterans Against the War is a tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation, originally created to oppose the Vietnam War. VVAW describes itself as a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans...
representative (and future senator and presidential candidate) John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
's 1971 testimony to the U.S. Senate, in which he asked "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
"Gypsy Biker" concerns the homecoming of a U.S. soldier killed in action in Iraq, and Springsteen has said that "Livin' in the Future" references extraordinary rendition and illegal wiretapping. "Long Walk Home" is a metaphorical account of the narrator's sense that, in the artist's words, those people living at home "he thought he knew, whose ideals he had something in common with, are like strangers." The recurring lyric "It’s gonna be a long walk home" is a response to the violation of "certain things", such as "what we'll do and what we won't", in spite of these codes having been (in the words of the narrator's father) "set in stone" by the characters' "flag flyin' over the courthouse."
Release and reception
According to Music WeekMusic Week
Music Week is a trade paper for the UK record industry.Founded in 1959 as Record Retailer, it was relaunched on 18 March 1972 as Music Week . On 17 January 1981 the title was again changed, owing to the increasing importance of sell-through videos, to Music & Video Week...
, Magic was Springsteen's seventh number-one in the UK, with first week sales of 77,692, making it his fastest-starting release of the 21st century. In the second week, the album's sales dipped to 28,348.
Magic debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, becoming Springsteen's eighth number one album in the U.S. and selling about 335,000 copies in its first week. After falling to number two for one week, the album rose again to number one, selling about 77,000 copies that week. In its fourth week, the album fell to number 12. The album received a small boost from publicity surrounding the February 2008 Grammy Awards: after 19 weeks on the chart, the album went from number 137 on the Top 200 to number 103, with a sales increase from 5,000 copies to 8,000 copies for the week.
The sales Magic gained in the United States were achieved despite its receiving very little radio airplay. Fox News reported that media conglomerate Clear Channel
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
had instructed its classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
format stations not to play any tracks from Magic, even though they continued to play Springsteen songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Clear Channel responded by saying that "in the first days after the CD's release," its stations played the record more than other stations did.
In contrast, by late November 2007 in the UK, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" and "Long Walk Home" had been frequently played on adult contemporary stations, despite not being released as singles.
By January 2009, Magic had sold one million copies in the U.S. and 4,795,660 copies in the world.
Track listing
All songs by Bruce Springsteen.- "Radio NowhereRadio Nowhere"Radio Nowhere" is the first single released from Bruce Springsteen's 2007 studio album Magic."Radio Nowhere" was awarded Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song at the Grammy Awards of 2008.-History:...
" – 3:21 - "You'll Be Comin' Down" – 3:46
- "Livin' in the Future" – 3:56
- "Your Own Worst Enemy" – 3:19
- "Gypsy Biker" – 4:32
- "Girls in Their Summer ClothesGirls in Their Summer Clothes"Girls in Their Summer Clothes" is a song by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, from his album Magic.Matched with a pop-oriented melody, Springsteen's full-throated singing, and a pop-orchestral arrangement, the lyric portrays a series of warm small-town vignettes:The music video for the...
" – 4:20 - "I'll Work for Your Love" – 3:35
- "Magic" – 2:46
- "Last to Die" – 4:17
- "Long Walk HomeLong Walk Home"Long Walk Home" is a 2006 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. It first appeared on his Sessions Band Tour of that year, in folk guise in the European leg of the tour in London for one performance only. Reworked with different and shorter lyrics, it was recorded by Springsteen and the...
" – 4:35 - "Devil's Arcade" – 5:08
- "Terry's Song" – 4:11 (hidden track)
Two weeks after the album's initial announcement, which included an 11-song track listing, "Terry's Song" was added. It is a memorial song for Springsteen's long-time assistant Terry Magovern, who died on July 30, 2007. Some pressings of the CD pre-ordered through Sony Music or other channels did not contain the extra track.
Chart performance
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 1 | Platinum |
| Austria | 1 | Gold |
| Canada | 1 | Platinum |
| Denmark | 1 | Platinum |
| Ireland | 1 | 3x Platinum |
| Italy | 1 | Platinum |
| Norway | 1 | 3x Platinum |
| Spain | 1 | Platinum |
| Sweden | 1 | 2x Platinum |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 | Gold |
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 | Platinum |
| Australia | 2 | Gold |
| Netherlands | 2 | Platinum |
| New Zealand | 2 | Gold |
| Belgium | 3 | Gold |
| France | 3 | |
| Germany | 3 | Gold |
| Finland | 4 | Gold |
| Switzerland | 4 | Gold |
| Hungarian Albums Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
9 | |
Year-end
| End of year chart (2007) | Position |
|---|---|
| German Albums Chart | 57 |
The E Street Band
- Bruce SpringsteenBruce SpringsteenBruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
– lead vocal, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, pump organ, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Roy BittanRoy BittanRoy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard... - Clarence ClemonsClarence ClemonsClarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, backing vocals - Danny FedericiDanny FedericiDaniel Paul "Danny" Federici was an American musician, best known as the longtime organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.- Career :...
– organ, keyboards - Nils LofgrenNils LofgrenNils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
– guitars, backing vocals - Patti ScialfaPatti ScialfaVivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.- Early life :...
– backing vocals - Garry TallentGarry TallentGarry Wayne Tallent , sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band....
– bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Steven Van ZandtSteven Van ZandtSteven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
– guitars, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, backing vocals - Max WeinbergMax WeinbergMax Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Additional musicians
- Soozie TyrellSoozie TyrellSoozie Tyrell, , formerly known as Soozie Kirschner, is an American violinist and vocalist, most known for her work with Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band.-Biography:...
– violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
on "Livin' in the Future", "I'll Work for Your Love", "Magic", "Last to Die"
- Jeremy Chatzky – upright bass on "Magic"
- Daniel Laufer – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
on "Devil's Arcade" - Patrick Warren – ChamberlinChamberlinThe Chamberlin is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument that was a precursor to the Mellotron. It was developed and patented by Iowa, Wisconsin inventor Harry Chamberlin from 1949 to 1956, when the first model was introduced. Various models and versions of these Chamberlin music instruments...
, tack pianoTack pianoIn music, the tack piano is a permanently altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the hammers of the instrument at the point where the hammers hit the strings, giving the instrument a tinny, more percussive sound...
on "Your Own Worst Enemy", "Girls in Their Summer Clothes", "Magic", "Long Walk Home", "Devil's Arcade"
- String sectionString sectionThe string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
on "Your Own Worst Enemy" and "Girls in Their Summer Clothes":- Kenn Wagner, Jay Christy, Justin Bruns, William Pu, Cristopher Pulgram, John Meisner, Olga Shpitko, Sheela Lyengar – violins
- Tania Maxwell Clements, Amy Chang, Lachlan McBane – violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
- Karen Freer, Daniel Laufer, Charae Kruege – cello